You could use a lot of words to describe Ed Sheeran but “black and urban” would not be ones that quickly come to mind.
However, BBC’s 1XTRA has just voted the Sing star as “the most important UK artist in the black and urban music scene”.
Sheeran was joined by rapper Tinie Tempah, dance act Disclosure, Sam Smith and Rudimental in the top five but the decision has come in for heavy criticism on Twitter since being announced over the weekend.
There is nothing ‘black’ or ‘urban’ about Ed Sheeran. Can any artist whose audience is white and mainstream be considered black and urban?
— Harry Illidge (@Illidge93) July 14, 2014
It turns out ED SHEERAN has been voted most powerful black artist by @1Xtra. As such I’m in the running for Chinese businessman of the year
— Sam Coles (@sammercoles) July 14, 2014
how has @edsheeran been named number 1 on the list for ‘most influential artist in black music’? is this a joke?
— Yasmin (@RAAAAHMAN) July 14, 2014
A man wrote for one direction so let him me be the most influential artist to people like them but not us .
— Wiley (@WileyUpdates) July 14, 2014
Im not bitter fam I just sold a Likkle million records myself but this reminds me of when plan b won best grime/HipHop artist at mobo .
— Wiley (@WileyUpdates) July 14, 2014
The station has defended its choice, saying that the artists were “considered on variables such as sales statistics, quality of music and impact across the wider industry – it is not about the colour of someone’s skin”.
